Family Bonding
by cleotheo
Summary: When a flood at home forces Draco and a heavily pregnant Hermione to move into the Manor it gives Hermione a chance to bond with both of her In-laws. Short three part story. Dramione family fluff.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N – This is just a small fluffy three part family story. I hope you enjoy.**

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A heavily pregnant, and very tired, Hermione Malfoy checked her watch as she wondered how much longer it would take to get home. Hermione and her husband, Draco Malfoy, had spent the weekend attending the wedding of his best friend Blaise Zabini and they were returning home. With Hermione being heavily pregnant the couple had decided to travel by car to and from the wedding, although with the long drive home Hermione was now regretting their decision.

"Are you okay?" Draco asked, glancing over at his wife.

"I'm just tired." Hermione said as she tried to get more comfortable.

"We'll only be another ten minutes or so." Draco told his wife.

Relieved that the journey was almost over, Hermione settled back in her seat and watched Draco. Even though she'd been married to Draco for five years and they'd been together a few years before that Hermione still found it slightly surreal to see him at ease with muggle things like driving a car. When they first started dating he was very wary of anything that wasn't magical, but gradually he learnt to accept the muggle part of her heritage. Nowadays he was a lot more at ease in the muggle world and quite a bit muggle technology was a normal part of their life.

One of the first things Draco had taken to was television, closely followed by cars. He'd introduced both things to Blaise and the two wizards shared a passion for driving fast cars and watching sport and films on their large screen televisions. Luckily Hermione was good friends with Blaise's new wife, Daphne Greengrass, and the two witches spent plenty of time together while their partners were playing with their cars and watching television.

Hermione was jolted from her musings when they arrived home and Draco brought the car to a halt in the drive. Almost as soon as he stopped the car, Draco hopped out of the vehicle and was around the passenger side helping Hermione up. Hermione smiled gratefully at Draco as she stretched after the long journey.

"I'll grab the bags, you go and put your feet up." Draco said, giving Hermione a kiss before turning to the car to grab their stuff.

Leaving Draco to grab the bags, Hermione made her way towards the front door. Unlocking the door, Hermione stepped inside the house and frowned in confusion. Something wasn't right, there was a weird musty smell to the house and the carpet below her feet was damp. Flicking on the light, Hermione gasped as she saw the mess her beautiful house was in.

The floor was wet and there was a pool of water at the base of the stairs. Stepping further into the house, Hermione peered around the door that led to the living room. The room was a shambles, the carpet was soaking and all of the furniture was dripping wet. Looking at the ceiling Hermione saw that it was also damp and the far corner looked as though it was holding a pool of water that threated to crack the ceiling at any moment. Shaking her head at the mess, Hermione peered into the kitchen to find it was in a similar state as the front room.

"What the hell?"

Hermione turned round at the sound of Draco's voice and found her husband entering the house. He was carrying their bags and looking around in disbelief.

"I think we've had a leak." Hermione sighed. "The front room and the kitchen are a mess."

"Stay here, I'll go and check upstairs." Draco said, putting the bags down on a table that looked reasonably dry.

"I'm coming with you." Hermione insisted, following Draco as he headed for the stairs.

Draco helped Hermione step over the puddle at the bottom of the stairs and the couple cautiously made their way upstairs. The stairs were completely dry and when they reached the second floor the hall seemed perfectly normal. The first room they checked was the master bedroom and Hermione was pleased to discover the room was unscathed. The room next to the master bedroom was the nursery that Hermione had just finished decorating and getting exactly as she wanted, and as they headed towards that room she hoped nothing had happened to it.

Luckily the nursery was safe from what had occurred, much to Hermione's relief. That left the spare room and Draco's office to check, which was where the couple found the problem. As soon as they opened the door to the spare room they discovered what had happened, a pipe had cracked in the loft and the resulting leak had created havoc. The entire ceiling had collapsed and the room was totally destroyed by the water that had soaked through everything. Draco's office was in much the same state, although only part of the ceiling had collapsed and Hermione thought that some things might be salvageable.

"Bloody hell." Draco swore at the sight of his office. Luckily all his work at home was just a copy of work he had at the office, but there were a few personal bits in the room that were irreplaceable.

"We might be able to save some stuff." Hermione said gently. "I'm sure it's not all destroyed."

"I guess." Draco sighed. "But the timing couldn't be worse, could it? The last thing we want is a ruined house when the baby's due next month."

"We'll sort it." Hermione replied. True the timing was inconvenient, but they would fix things and hopefully everything would be fine by the time she gave birth.

"It's not going to be an easy job." Draco told his wife. "Even with magic, this will take a while to fix. First of all we need to determine if there's any permanent damage, then the pipe needs to be fixed. This won't be done before the baby arrives."

"What are we going to do?" Hermione asked.

"First of all we need to find someplace to stay tonight." Draco answered. "We can sort everything out in the morning, and assess the damage properly. But since it's late tonight, I think we should go to a nearby hotel for the night."

Hermione nodded and let Draco escort her back down stairs. When they reached the ground floor she took one last look around her house, before Draco grabbed their bags and they locked up for the night. Throwing their luggage back into the car, Draco drove them to a nearby hotel and the couple settled down for the night, hoping they could get everything sorted the following day.

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In the cold light of day Hermione realised that things at the house were much worse than she'd initially feared. Examining the damage it was obvious that the house was inhabitable and Draco was guessing the work to fix it could take a good couple of months. The only bright side was that their bedroom and the nursery were untouched, so at least some of their things were safe. Just by looking around Hermione knew they would need to totally redecorate several rooms and buy new furniture. She also knew that plenty of personal items would be beyond saving, but she was trying to concentrate on the things they could save.

With the realisation that they wouldn't be able to stay at home Hermione and Draco had started to talk about their options. Hermione initially suggested they just carried on staying at the hotel, but Draco had refused to stay there long term. As he so rightly pointed out they could possibly be homeless for several months and with a baby due to be arriving soon they needed a more permanent solution.

"There's only one option." Draco stated. "We'll have to go and stay at the Manor. We can take plenty of our things and set up a nursery there as well."

"Isn't there another solution?" Hermione asked with a grimace. The thought of living at the Manor wasn't appealing in the slightest.

"No. The Manor's our only option." Draco replied. "You're not scared of my father are you?" He asked, knowing full well that Hermione wasn't scared of Lucius, they just didn't get along.

"Of course not." Hermione scoffed.

"Then there's no problem then is there?" Draco replied, smirking at his wife before he left the room to continue checking the rest of the house.

Hermione scowled at Draco's retreating form, wondering if she could find an alternative solution before her husband contacted his parents and arranged for them to go and stay at Malfoy Manor. Hermione had nothing against Narcissa, in fact she really liked her mother-in-law and got on great with her, it was Lucius that was the problem. Unlike Draco and Narcissa, who had avoided being sent to Azkaban after the war, Lucius did get a short jail term. By the time he was released Hermione and Draco were already a couple and Lucius made his displeasure known from the beginning. Draco had told his father in no uncertain terms that he was with Hermione and nothing Lucius could say would change that and if he didn't want to lose him then he would have to accept things. Lucius hadn't been happy with Draco's ultimatum, but he agreed to it and didn't try to cause trouble between Hermione and Draco. Despite not causing trouble his disapproval was still evident and he and Hermione had never forged a relationship, they merely tolerated each other for Draco's sake.

Not wanting to spend more time than necessary with her frosty father-in-law, Hermione began to think of other alternatives than going to the Manor. Unfortunately almost all of her ideas hit a stumbling block fairly quickly.

Her parents were out of the equation because they lived in Australia and to be honest Hermione didn't have the best relationship with them anymore. When they'd had their memories restored after the war they'd been disgusted with what Hermione had done and it had caused a severe rift. Over the years they had calmed down and accepted she had only been trying to protect them, but they'd never fully forgiven her for using magic on them. Within the last few years things had improved even more, but even if they lived in England Hermione doubted if she would be comfortably with asking them to put her and Draco up for a few months.

The most obvious solution had been Blaise and Daphne as the couple were their best friends. Hermione had been quite pleased with the idea, until she remembered they were on an extended honeymoon. Being a bit of a flash git Blaise had gone all out for the honeymoon, organising for him and Daphne to spend six weeks travelling the world and visiting all the places she wanted to see. Even if they hadn't been on an extended honeymoon Hermione figured it wasn't the best time to stay with them anyway, as newlyweds the last thing they would want was Hermione, Draco and a new baby gate-crashing their lives.

Hermione's best friends were also out of the equation, partly for the intrusion it would cause and partly because they just weren't quite as close any more. Hermione was closer to Harry and Ginny Potter, but they had a three year old son and Ginny was four months pregnant herself so it was hardly an ideal time for houseguests. Plus while Harry and Draco got along fine these days Hermione didn't think they would cope very well with living together, spending a few hours together every couple of weeks was very different from spending months under the same roof.

Hermione's other friend, Ron Weasley, was certainly out of the equation as there was no way in hell that Draco would stay with him and there was no way that Ron would make the offer. Things between Hermione and Ron had been strained since just after the war when she'd made it clear she didn't want to pursue a romantic relationship with him and she just saw him as a friend. Ron wasn't happy, but he'd accepted things with grace until Hermione went back to Hogwarts to repeat her last year and got involved with Draco. Ron had taken the news badly and had stopped speaking to her for nearly three months, he did come round eventually and they resorted their friendship but him and Draco had never gotten along and Hermione doubted they ever would.

"Damn." Hermione muttered, realising she was out of options. It looked like she was going to be staying at Malfoy Manor for the foreseeable future.


	2. Chapter 2

Draco and Hermione's move to Malfoy Manor was met by excitement by Narcissa and indifference by Lucius. Narcissa was thrilled to have her son, daughter-in-law and future grandchild at the Manor and did everything she could to help the young couple settle in. Lucius meanwhile kept his distance and only showed his face at meal times.

Hermione and Draco had settled in Draco's old room and they were turning the room next to that into a nursery. Draco had brought over practically the entire nursery and they had recreated the room at the Manor. Hermione hadn't wanted to transfer all the nursery, but she agreed when Draco pointed out things would take longer than expected to fix the house.

Draco had hired a builder to look at the house and the prognosis was worse than they initially feared. As well as the caved-in ceiling upstairs there was the downstairs ceiling to sort. Apparently the whole thing could collapse at any time so it needed to be reinforced. Apart from the ceilings there was also the ruined spare room, Draco's office, the front room and kitchen to fix, not to mention the lesser damage in the front hall and bottom of stairs.

With the house being such a big job to fix Draco had decided that they should move everything out of house, until it was sorted and decorated. Despite not wanting the upheaval of moving, Hermione agreed it was the sensible thing to do. So for the last fortnight they had been packing everything up and moving it to the Manor. While the bedroom and nursery were easy to sort the rest of the house was proving more difficult and time consuming as they had to work out what was salvageable.

Hermione was currently sitting on the floor sorting baby clothes in the nursery at the Manor, while Draco was off at their house trying to sort out the mess that was his office. Looking around the room, Hermione felt a pang of homesickness. While the Manor was lovely and both the bedroom she and Draco were using and the nursery were bigger than the rooms at home, they just didn't feel like theirs. In every room at home Hermione felt like she belonged but at the Manor she just felt like a guest, and when Lucius was around she felt like an unwelcome one.

A quiet knocking disturbed Hermione from her thoughts and when she looked up she found Narcissa standing in the doorway, holding a box.

"Can I come in?" Narcissa asked.

"Of course." Hermione nodded. "Just don't expect me to get up. It took me ten minutes to get down here."

"You don't need to get up." Narcissa chuckled as she joined Hermione on the floor. Once upon a time Hermione would have laughed at the idea of Narcissa sitting on the floor, but she'd discovered that the witch was a lot more down to earth than people realised.

"Could you pass me that pile of baby-grows?" Hermione asked, pointing to a messy pile of clothing that was sitting on a nearby rocking chair.

Narcissa passed Hermione the pile and the two witches began to neatly fold the clothes, before Hermione packed them in the chest of drawers she was sitting beside. She'd actually sorted the drawer's weeks ago and everything had been neatly packed away, but during the move Draco had forgotten to put a spell on the contents to keep them neat and when Hermione had opened the drawers she found the clothes were a mess.

"Have you not been tempted to find out the sex of the baby?" Narcissa asked as they folded the clothes. With Hermione and Draco not knowing the sex of the baby all the baby clothes, toys and nursery decorations were neutral.

"A few times actually, but I decided to wait until he or she was born." Hermione replied.

"Did Draco not want to know the sex of the baby?" Narcissa asked.

"He wasn't sure, so he left the decision up to me." Hermione said. "I was originally going to find out but then I got wondering if the answer would disappoint Draco."

"Why would Draco be disappointed in the answer?" Narcissa frowned, hoping her son hadn't pinned his hopes on one sex and kept calling the baby a he or a she.

"I just thought that he might like a son to carry on the family name." Hermione admitted. "He hasn't said as much, but I get the impression that he wants a little boy. I don't want to disappoint him, so I figured if I have the baby and it's a girl he would see her and not be disappointed."

"I'm sure he'll not be disappointed either way." Narcissa reassured her daughter-in-law. "You should talk to him about it, just to put your mind at rest."

Hermione nodded, deciding she would talk to Draco when he returned. "How about you? Did you know Draco was going to be a boy before you had him?" She asked.

"Yes, we knew we were having a boy." Narcissa nodded, a sad look on her face. "We actually weren't going to find out, but I had to undergo certain tests to check everything was okay and we found out he was a boy during those."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to stir up bad memories." Hermione said, noticing that Narcissa seemed sad. She was guessing her pregnancy was a tough one, hence the reason for her extra tests.

"It's okay, it was a long time ago." Narcissa smiled reassuringly at Hermione, letting her know she hadn't upset her. "Before I was pregnant with Draco, I was expecting another child, a little girl."

"I didn't know." Hermione said quietly, wondering what had happened.

"Not many people do, we don't talk about it." Narcissa replied. "I don't even think Draco knows about her."

"What happened? I mean if you don't mind me asking. I'll understand if you don't want to talk about it."

"It's fine." Narcissa said. "Shortly after Lucius and I got married I found out I was pregnant. We were both thrilled and during one of our appointments with the healer we found out we were expecting a girl. I was so worried that Lucius would be disappointed, but he wasn't."

"He was pleased you were having a girl?" Hermione asked, slightly surprised as she'd always figured that Lucius had wanted a son to carry on the family name.

"He was thrilled at the prospect." Narcissa smiled fondly as she recalled her husband's joy. "But our happiness didn't last," She added sadly. "About five months into my pregnancy I started feeling really unwell and when we went to the hospital we discovered the baby had died."

"Oh Narcissa, I'm so sorry." Hermione felt tears welling up in her eyes as she comforted the older witch.

"Thank you." Narcissa squeezed Hermione's hand, before she carried on talking. "Losing her almost destroyed our marriage but Lucius and I survived and a few years later we had Draco. When I was pregnant with Draco the healers carried out extra tests and kept a careful eye on me to make sure I didn't lose a second baby. We nearly lost him twice and when he was born the Healers made it clear I wouldn't be able to carry another baby."

"I'm sorry, Narcissa." Hermione said gently. "I can't imagine what you went through."

"Hopefully it's something you'll never have to experience." Narcissa replied. "But despite everything she's still a part of my life, there's an enchanted rose bush in the garden that's dedicated to her. We might never have gotten to hold our daughter, be we'll always remember her."

"Why doesn't Draco know about her?" Hermione asked.

"It's just never really come up." Narcissa answered. "We didn't want to tell him when he was younger and as he grew up it just never seemed appropriate to mention it."

Hermione nodded, understanding why Draco's parents had been reluctant to talk about such a hard period of their life.

"I'll show you her bush sometime, if you want." Narcissa offered.

"I'd like that." Hermione smiled.

Narcissa smiled back at Hermione, before shaking her head to dislodge her sad thoughts. Reaching behind her she pulled the box she entered the room with in between them.

"What's that?" Hermione asked as Narcissa began to lift the lid.

"It's a box of Draco's old baby stuff. I found it a few weeks ago and was going to bring it over to you, I just never got a chance before the burst pipe." Narcissa answered. "I'll understand if you don't want any of it."

"I think that's a lovely idea, Narcissa." Hermione said, smiling at her mother-in-law. She knew that Narcissa would have kept the stuff to pass onto Draco since she hadn't been able to have any more children and she wasn't going to turn down such a sweet offer. "What's in here?"

"I have no idea." Narcissa shrugged. "I knew it was Draco's baby stuff, so I didn't go through it. I thought we could do that together."

Hermione agreed it was a nice idea and the two women delved into the box. The first things they produced were a pile of old clothes. Some were for a new-born baby, while others were for a slightly older child. Just looking at the outfits Hermione could tell they were expensive, it would seem that even as a baby Draco had been immaculately dressed.

"Oh, it's his Quidditch jersey." Narcissa cooed, pulling a green and silver jersey from the pile of clothes.

Hermione laughed at the prefect replica of the Slytherin Quidditch jersey, it even had Malfoy written on the back. "You got him one in Slytherin colours? You were confident he was going to be a Slytherin weren't you?"

"Actually Lucius got him it." Narcissa answered. "He was convinced Draco was going to be a Slytherin, and as it turned out he was right. I've probably got a few pictures of Draco wearing this, I'll have to dig them out."

"Yes please, I'd love to see them." Hermione said, folding the Quidditch jersey and placing it at the top of the drawer. As soon as their child was big enough they were wearing that jersey, it was just so cute.

Delving back into the box, Narcissa pulled out a selection of stuffed toys. Unlike the muggle soft toys Hermione had dotted around the baby's room, these ones were all magical creatures. Among them were a griffin, a unicorn and several dragons. Hermione wasn't the slightest bit surprised when Narcissa told her that the dragons were Draco's favourites. Draco was surprisingly a big animal person, and he had an affinity for the dangerous creatures he shared a name with.

Using her wand Hermione placed the toys with the others and returned her attention to the box. This time Narcissa produced a selection of wizarding children's books. Hermione looked through them and found they were perfect for reading to really young children as they featured none of the grisly stuff that was often present in older children's books. Pleased with her latest additions to her unborn child's reading collection, Hermione once again used magic to place the books on the bookshelves in the corner.

"Draco's mobile." Narcissa announced, pulling a delicate looking baby mobile from the box.

The mobile was made from some sort of dark wood and instead of the little objects that normally hung from the strings, there were crystals. While Hermione thought it would look pretty hanging on the ceiling she failed to see why you would hang it over a baby's crib. Hermione had already bought two mobiles and both had little figurines to stimulate the baby.

"You look confused." Narcissa laughed.

"I am." Hermione said, reaching out and touching one of the crystals. "Why does it just have crystals?"

"It's enchanted." Narcissa explained. "You can either charm it so it looks like something, Lucius used to charm it to look like Quidditch players and stuff like that, or you can leave it as it is and it magically changes depending on what's in the baby's head. I used to like to leave it as it was, that way when I checked on Draco I could be sure his dreams were all nice ones."

"And what did the mobile usually look like?" Hermione questioned. She rather like the idea of letting the design be influenced by the child it was hanging over.

"It all depended, dragons and mythical creatures featured pretty heavily as did Quidditch when he'd been spending time with Lucius." Narcissa replied. "In fact animals were the most common thing to find on his mobile."

"I think it's great." Hermione said, placing the mobile to one side. "I'll definitely be trying it."

Narcissa smiled as the two women unpacked the remaining few bits and pieces from the box. Once they were finished Narcissa helped Hermione to her feet and the two women headed downstairs. Settling down in the front room Narcissa summoned her old photo albums and began showing Hermione the old baby pictures of Draco.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N - Thank you everyone for reading this story, as always I really appreciate all the wonderful support I receive. **

**For this chapter I would just like to apologise in advance for any inaccuracies that might occur. I haven't been lucky enough to have children yet, so my knowledge of childbirth isn't the best. Hopefully that won't distract from the final part of the story.**

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As she got ready to go out, Narcissa wondered if she was doing the right thing by leaving Hermione. Over the weekend there had been a false alarm with the baby and Narcissa was wary of leaving her daughter-in-law. However, both Hermione and Draco had insisted that Narcissa carry on as usual and keep her weekly lunch date with her group of friends.

Deciding to double check on Hermione before she left, Narcissa grabbed her bag and headed off towards Hermione and Draco's room. Knocking on the bedroom door, Narcissa poked her head into the room. Hermione was lying on the bed and Narcissa thought her daughter-in-law was asleep until she lifted her head and smiled at the older witch.

"How are you?" Narcissa asked entering the room and perching on the side of the bed.

"Fine." Hermione replied. "I'm just a bit tired."

"Do you want me to stay?" Narcissa questioned. "I can cancel on the girls and stay with you."

"I'm fine, go and enjoy your afternoon." Hermione insisted. "I'll probably just spend the day in bed."

"If you're sure." Narcissa replied as she stood up. "Lucius will be here, so if you need anything make sure you send for him."

Hermione nodded, although she had no intention of calling for Lucius. Once Narcissa left she was going to curl back up and go to sleep. Hopefully by the time she woke up she would feel better as at the minute she felt pretty rough.

"I'll try not to be too long." Narcissa placed a quick kiss on Hermione's forehead before leaving her daughter-in-law to go back to sleep.

Heading downstairs, Narcissa found Lucius in his study. Even though Draco had taken over the family business Lucius still had a say in things and he often had his own personal projects going on that had nothing to do with the family business.

"I'm off." Narcissa told her husband. "Keep an eye on Hermione. I know the baby's not due for another week, but she didn't look great."

"I'm sure she's fine." Lucius muttered.

"I mean it Lucius." Narcissa glared at her husband. "Look out for her, and don't you dare leave her alone."

"I won't." He sighed, knowing better than to argue with his wife.

"I'll see you in a few hours."

Lucius watched his wife leave, hoping he'd have a peaceful afternoon and wouldn't be disturbed by Hermione. It wasn't that Lucius didn't like Hermione, it was just that he didn't know her very well and if he was being honest he wasn't sure how to act around her. Before Hermione he'd never really interacted with muggleborns and he was worried in case he accidentally offended her and Draco got mad.

In the aftermath of the war Draco and Narcissa had found it easier to forget their prejudices against muggleborns than Lucius. Over forty years of thinking a specific way was hard to overcome and Lucius really did struggle with accepting muggleborns as equals. He had honestly tried his very best to change like his wife and son, but it was a hard thing to do and when his brief stint in Azkaban was at an end he was really just beginning his journey.

Ideally he would have built up to interacting with muggleborns, but that hadn't been an option since Draco was already involved with Hermione and their relationship was pretty serious. Lucius would readily admit he didn't react well to the news Draco was involved with a muggleborn and his first few encounters with Hermione had been less than ideal. Over the years he'd come to fully accept Hermione as part of the family, but their relationship had never developed into a close one, they just learnt to accept one another for Draco's sake.

Even Hermione's pregnancy and her and Draco's recent move into the Manor had failed to bring them any closer. Lucius was genuinely thrilled with the idea of becoming a grandfather, but he couldn't help the small part of him that was less than happy with the pure blood Malfoy line dying out. Lucius fought that side of his nature every day and the little voice in his head that would say that Draco was letting the family down by marrying a muggleborn was getting quieter all the time. Lucius was hoping that the baby's arrival would silence the voice altogether and he could just enjoy being a grandfather and not have to feel guilty for the odd thoughts he couldn't help but have.

Shaking his head to dislodge thoughts of Hermione, Lucius turned back to his desk. He had work to do, he couldn't just sit here and dwell on his daughter-in-law. Once he started back on with his work, Hermione didn't enter his thoughts again, until a house elf unexpectedly popped into the room a good couple of hours later.

"What do you want Misty?" Lucius asked, briefly looking up from his work to see which elf had entered his study.

Since the end of the war and the new laws freeing elves, the Malfoy's had a lot less elves working at the Manor, but the ones they did have were loyal and were very hard workers. Misty, the elf who had entered his study, was the elf Narcissa had assigned to look out for Hermione.

"Miss Hermione needs help." Misty squeaked, wringing her hands nervously.

"What is it?" Lucius asked in a bored tone. "Can't it wait until Narcissa gets back?"

"She's having a baby." Misty replied.

"I had noticed." Lucius drawled. "But what does that have to do with anything?"

"She's having a baby, right now." Misty amended, making sure to add the vital bit of information.

"Now?" Lucius jumped to his feet and looked around in a panic. "Why didn't you say anything? Come on."

Not checking to see if the elf was following him, Lucius bolted out of his study and headed off in the direction of Draco and Hermione's room.

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Hermione clung onto the back of the chair as another wave of pain hit her. The pains had started coming shortly after Narcissa had left the room, but thinking it was another false alarm Hermione had ignored them. However, nearly two hours later she knew this was no false alarm, she was in labour.

"Misty." She called for the elf Narcissa had asked to keep an eye on her since arriving at the Manor.

With a small pop Misty appeared beside Hermione. The helpful smile soon slid off the little creatures face as she took in the sight of her young mistress.

"Is Narcissa back, yet?" Hermione gritted out, trying to breathe through the pain.

"No, Miss." Misty shook her head.

Hermione's reply was swallowed by her screams as another contraction hit. Realising she needed someone, Hermione reluctantly sent the elf off to get Lucius. While her father-in-law wouldn't have been her ideal choice of help, he would have to suffice. It took nearly ten minutes for Lucius to come bursting into the bedroom and by that time Hermione's contractions were coming every couple of minutes.

"Come on, we have to get you to the hospital." Lucius immediately took charge of the situation, his earlier panic subsiding when he witnessed Hermione in labour.

"Draco." Hermione gasped as Lucius took hold of her arm. "I need Draco."

"Misty, send for Draco." Lucius snapped at the elf. "Tell him to meet us at the hospital."

When Lucius began leading Hermione to the fireplace in the room, she shook her head. "It's not connected to the floo network."

"Bloody hell, I'll kill Draco." Lucius muttered. "Do you think you can make it to mine and Narcissa's room?"

Hermione opened her mouth to reply, but all that emerged was a loud cry. Lucius took one look at his daughter-in-law and called for another elf. This time he sent the elf off to the hospital with orders to bring back a Healer. Carefully he walked Hermione over to the bed and sat her down.

"What are you doing?" Hermione asked, crying out as another contraction hit.

"This baby isn't going to wait." Lucius said. "We don't have time to get you to the hospital."

"Yes we do. Aah." Hermione's protests turned into screams as her body agreed with Lucius.

"You're having this baby now, so stop arguing." Lucius told his daughter-in-law. "Draco and the healer are on the way, let's get you comfortable."

Hermione let Lucius help her get settled on the bed, she even held onto him and dug her nails into his arm a couple of times as the pain hit her.

"I think I need to push." Hermione said, looking at Lucius in horror.

"You can't." Lucius's face mirrored the look of horror on Hermione's face. "The healer isn't here yet."

"I can't help that." Hermione panted.

"But you're not ready to give birth. You're still wearing your pyjama bottoms." Lucius argued.

"I know." Hermione muttered. "You get up here and don't look." She ordered her father-in-law.

Lucius quickly made his way to the head of the bed and turned away as Hermione removed her pyjama bottoms. Throwing the bed sheet over her uncovered lower half, Hermione once again held onto Lucius as the contractions carried on coming closer together.

"Where's that healer?" Hermione questioned through her screams.

"I don't know." Lucius muttered. "I should have gone myself."

"Don't leave me." Hermione cried, worried that she would be left alone to deliver her baby.

"I'm not going anywhere." Lucius soothed, running a hand through Hermione's hair. "Do you still feel the need to push?"

"Yes, it's getting stronger." Hermione panted.

"Then do it." Lucius ordered.

"What if something happens to the baby?" Hermione asked, fear evident in her voice. "What if it gets stuck?"

"Nothing will happen, I promise." Lucius smiled at Hermione reassuringly as he took hold of her hand. "Now push."

Lucius almost wished he hadn't taken hold of Hermione's hand when she almost crushed it with her surprisingly strong grip. However he didn't remove his hand, he merely let Hermione squeeze it as she almost screamed the house down. When Hermione collapsed back onto the bed, her hand slipped under the sheet her had covering herself.

"I can feel the head." She announced, before frowning and turning to look at Lucius. "You're going to have to go down there."

"What?" Lucius looked at her as though she was mad. "Why? I can help from here."

"I need to be sure the baby's okay." Hermione said. She didn't like the idea any more than Lucius did, but her baby came first. "Please Lucius." She pleaded through gritted teeth as the urge to push began to grow again.

Reluctantly Lucius nodded and leaving Hermione's side he headed to the bottom of the bed. With a deep breath he took up his position and trying to forget who he was dealing with, he helped Hermione deliver the baby. The rest of the labour passed easily and before Lucius knew where he was, he was cleaning up a tiny bundle and checking the baby was okay.

"What is it?" Hermione gasped.

"It's a boy." Lucius grinned.

Just as Lucius wrapped the baby in a blanket and handed him to Hermione, the house elf Lucius had sent to the hospital appeared, followed by a Healer. The Healer apologised for the delay, citing an emergency at the hospital, as he hurried forward to examine Hermione and the baby.

While the Healer was in the middle of his examination of Hermione, Draco burst into the room. He frantically took in the scene before sprinting over to the side of bed and grabbing hold of Hermione's hand.

"I'm so sorry I'm late, I was in a meeting and Misty told me to go to the hospital but when I got there you weren't there. One of the Healers said you sent for help, so I rushed straight back here." Draco said, kissing Hermione on the forehead. "But since I'm here now you can have the baby."

"Thanks for the permission." Hermione snorted. "But I've already had the baby."

"What?" Draco looked at the Healer in bewilderment before spotting his father holding a tiny bundle in his arms.

"Lucius delivered him." Hermione explained as Draco headed over to meet his son.

"And a good job he did too." The Healer added. "Both Mrs Malfoy and the baby are perfectly healthy. I see no reason that either of you should have to come into the hospital. I'll come back in a couple of days to check everything's okay."

"You delivered him?" Draco asked Lucius as Hermione spoke to the Healer before he left.

"Yes." Lucius nodded, handing over his grandson to his son. "It was bloody terrifying." He whispered to Draco.

Draco chuckled and thanked his father, before making his way back to Hermione. Settling down on the bed beside her, the couple looked at their new-born son in amazement. Lucius watched them with a smile on his face, before collapsing onto a nearby chair with relief.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Narcissa's return home was later than she planned, but her friends had been heading to the shops and she just couldn't resist joining them. Her shopping detour hadn't been a complete waste of time as she had three bags full of stuff for the baby and a little something for Draco, Hermione and Lucius.

Magically sending her shopping up to her room, Narcissa set out for Lucius's study. Narcissa frowned when she spotted the room was deserted. She'd told her husband to stay at home in case Hermione wanted him and it looked as though he had scarpered.

"Wait until I get my hands on him." Narcissa muttered as she headed off to check on Hermione. "He's a dead man."

Still mumbling to herself, Narcissa headed to Hermione and Draco's room. After knocking quietly she entered the room, half expecting her daughter-in-law to be asleep. What she didn't expect was to find Draco sitting on the bed beside Hermione and Lucius sitting on a chair next to the bed. And she definitely didn't expect to find her husband cradling a new-born baby.

"Oh, I've missed the birth." Narcissa gasped.

"It was quite the event." Lucius chuckled.

"Come and meet your grandson Narcissa, and we'll tell you all about it." Hermione smiled at the older witch.

"Have you decided on a name yet?" Narcissa asked as she walked over to her husband's side.

"Scorpius." Draco answered. "We've decided to follow the family tradition."

Narcissa smiled at her son and daughter-in law and once she was settled beside Lucius, with her grandson in her arms, Lucius and Hermione told her about the afternoon they'd had. Narcissa could barely believe Lucius had delivered the baby, but so far it seemed to have helped him bond with Hermione. For the first time the pair seemed comfortable in each other's company, she just hoped this was the beginning of the pair of them settling into a good relationship.

As it turned out Narcissa was right, the experience had helped to bond Hermione and Lucius. After Scorpius' birth Lucius no longer spent all his time in his study, instead choosing to spend his days with his daughter-in-law and his grandson. By the time Hermione and Draco were ready to return home, the pair were quite close and Lucius thought of Hermione as a daughter.

**The End.**


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